- Sam Bankman-Fried got here up with a listing of unhealthy concepts after FTX’s chapter
- Considered one of them was happening Tucker Carlson’s present and taking an anti-woke heel flip.
- The checklist was included in prosecutors’ sentencing submission, asking for 50 years in jail.
After FTX declared chapter, in November 2022, its founder and former CEO got here up with a listing of horrible concepts.
In a Google Doc, which was prefaced “random most likely unhealthy concepts” and labeled confidential, Sam Bankman-Fried listed methods wherein he may have the ability to rebuild his fame.
The checklist included attacking the chapter attorneys (which he in the end did), attacking the rival cryptocurrency alternate Binance (ditto), and doing an ABC Information interview with writer Michael Lewis (Lewis doesn’t work for ABC).
Essentially the most placing merchandise on the checklist was happening then-Fox Information host Tucker Carlson’s present to “come out as a republican.”
On Carlson’s present, Bankman-Fried might “Come out in opposition to the woke agenda” and likewise criticize the chapter attorneys who took over FTX and had been attempting to get a refund to defrauded clients, he wrote on the checklist.
“Speak about how the cartel of attorneys is destroying worth and throwing entrepreneurs beneath the bus as a way to cowl up the incompetence of attorneys,” Bankman-Fried memorialized.
US Lawyer’s Workplace for the Southern District of New York
A replica of the doc was included as an exhibit in a sentencing memorandum filed Friday by federal prosecutors in Manhattan.
In November, a jury discovered Bankman-Fried responsible of seven counts of fraud and conspiracy. Quite a few former executives and associates testified that Bankman-Fried commingled funds of FTX clients with Alameda Analysis, a cryptocurrency buying and selling agency he additionally managed. The losses, prosecutors say, exceeded $10 billion.
Prosecutors are asking a choose to condemn Bankman-Fried to between 40 and 50 years in jail and problem an $11 billion judgment. They stated Bernie Madoff’s crimes needs to be used as a benchmark for Bankman-Fried, whose fraud they name “one of many largest monetary frauds in historical past, and what’s seemingly the biggest fraud within the final decade.”
The checklist of concepts, prosecutors stated, was proof Bankman-Fried was “motivated to launch his redemption narrative and has already been fascinated by tips on how to spin it” — and will subsequently get an extended jail sentence.
US District Decide Lewis Kaplan will weigh prosecutors’ memo in opposition to one by Bankman-Fried’s attorneys, who requested for a sentence of not more than about six years.
Bankman-Fried acknowledged his checklist of concepts was not superb.
“Word: these are all random most likely unhealthy concepts that are not vetted,” the doc says on the prime.
Bankman-Fried by no means ended up on Carlson’s present, which was canceled by Fox Information in 2023. (Carlson has since switched to vlogging on X, previously often known as Twitter, and launching his personal subscription product.)
A number of the concepts got here to fruition, although.
Bankman-Fried and his household have lengthy argued that FTX clients would have speedily recovered their cash if solely chapter attorneys had cooperated with him.
“Focus nearly completely on the truth that we might give worth again to clients and the Chapter 11 staff is destroying it,” Bankman-Fried wrote on one checklist entry.
“Concentrate on the truth that the Chapter 11 staff has no thought tips on how to run FTX, it is colonial, run by a cartel of attorneys,” he wrote in one other.
“Come out as extraordinarily professional crypto, professional freedom,” he added.
In one other checklist, he tried to consider individuals who he might courtroom for help.
He listed “Alt proper?” and “Another displaced group?” beneath the class of “Random subgroup help.”
In a chapter courtroom listening to earlier this 12 months, FTX attorneys stated clients could possibly be made complete — one thing that Bankman-Fried’s attorneys have cited to argue for a light-weight sentence.
However prosecutors say that declare does not inform the complete story. It does not account for the work that FTX attorneys put into liquidating and clawing again numerous investments Bankman-Fried made with buyer cash, they wrote.
House owners of Bitcoin on FTX’s platform would not have the ability to benefit from the rise within the cryptocurrency’s costs as a result of Bankman-Fried had already spent it, they wrote. As a substitute, they’d get the November 2022 greenback quantity for these currencies — far lower than what they might be value at the moment.
ANGELA WEISS/AFP through Getty Photographs
Bankman-Fried, in his checklist, appeared cognizant of his political fame. He donated primarily to Democrats in Congressional races. However, based on trial testimony and messages obtained by prosecutors, he participated in a straw donor scheme the place he’d funnel FTX buyer funds by means of different executives to Republicans and right-leaning darkish cash teams.
Bankman-Fried wrote that he might spotlight that side of his political spending on Carlson’s present.
“Whereas public contributions present one factor, you see one other factor together with tremendous pacs,” he wrote.
In one other checklist, Bankman-Fried got here up with a listing of “Allies.”
The one individual on that checklist is “Skreli,” an obvious reference to Martin Shkreli.
Bankman-Fried mused on politicians and reporters who “is perhaps useful” to him, together with US Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, Lewis, and Bloomberg columnist Matt Levine.
It was on Bloomberg’s “Odd Heaps” podcast the place Levine famously described Bankman-Fried’s ideas on cryptocurrency as “the Ponzi enterprise.”
Bankman-Fried thought he might give it one other shot.
“Go face to face with Matt Levine on Odd Heaps, actually lean in to arguments,” he wrote.
